


Before You Go

by CybeleEvelysse



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Romance, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27365392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CybeleEvelysse/pseuds/CybeleEvelysse
Summary: He would have waited longer normally, drawn things out, been more evasive and distant, but time was not something he had to waste. All he had was a month, and though he had intended on being alone for it, she had decided that he shouldn't be, and who was he to argue with the beautiful Ann Takamaki?Romantic Ann and Goro. Takes place during the third semester.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Takamaki Ann
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Before You Go

It was a strange month that had followed a strange year. Everything had changed, everyone had changed, some of them by choice, others by force, but now everything had stopped changing. Everything was stagnant, and after getting so used to things constantly flowing and moving like the hem of her skirt on a breezy day, Ann Takamaki found that she hated the stillness that she was left with. She wanted more change, she craved it, and she was not alone in that desire.

Over and over she had visited Kichijoji that month. The first time hadn't been intended to be anything, it was just a shopping trip that she had gone on by herself to pass the time. She had no idea that someone else hung out in that area regularly until she accidentally bumped into him. 

Up and down, her eyes moved, taking in the sight of his pale mousy brown hair and his tan coat that was far too expensive for a teenager to be able to afford. His eyes said that he had been through hell, and his frown said that he was still there. She knew he was inconvenienced by the fact that she had so clumsily bumped into him by the way that his eyes narrowed as he looked at her.

"You should watch where you're going," Goro told her as she scrambled to pick up the things that she had dropped off the ground.    
"Who says it's my fault? Maybe you were the one who wasn't looking," Ann argued, despite the fact that she knew it was her fault. She had been messing around on her phone at the time, trying to upload a picture to instagram of all things. Goro held out her phone to her then, and the post was still visible on the screen due to the fact that she had dropped it without pressing any other buttons.   
"You were saying?" His smug look annoyed her. It always annoyed her, but it annoyed her even more now.   
"What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn't you be off plotting how you're going to murder all of us when we turn our backs?" She intended it to be a joke, but part of her wasn't joking.   
"Is that really what you think of me?" Goro questioned, and she just shrugged.   
"I don't know what to think of you anymore. You're so cold all the time that I can't tell if you hate us or if you just don't want us to like you for some reason," Ann replied honestly. He looked at her, puzzled. If she had picked up on that, then perhaps she was more intuitive than he gave her credit for.   
"I don't like to muddy business with pleasure, and working with your group is business to me. I'm not trying to be friends with any of you," Goro replied simply.    
"It seems like your entire life is business to you," Ann observed, and he crossed his arms in response.   
"So?" Who was she to judge his life?   
"Doesn't it ever feel empty to you? Don't you ever want to let someone in?" She asked, and his gaze shifted to the ground for a moment, before moving back to her aqua eyes.    
"No one wants to come in," He replied with absolute honesty. "Anyway, to answer your question from before, I'm waiting for someone. They might be here soon."   
"They might be?" She questioned.    
"We didn't make plans, but sometimes he shows up," Goro responded. That was when Ann realized, all he did was stand there in Kichijoji waiting for Akira to maybe come by and see him. He had nothing else to do, nothing else to exist for. He had no other friends, he had lost his job as a detective, and he had nothing else that he wanted to do in his spare time. He lived for business, and when that business stopped, he didn't find any pleasure in anything. No wonder he was so cold.

From that point forward, Ann decided that she wouldn't let him stand in the stillness. The change that she wanted from the world she would instead find in him, and little by little, she would melt his icy cold heart with the flames of her own. Over and over she visited Kichijoji, and over and over she bumped into him. 

At some point Goro stopped believing that she was just a clumsy airhead, and started realizing that she was actually just trying to spend time with him. Why, he had no idea, but he entertained her anyway. 

One day she decided to bring him chocolate. Normally he didn't like sweets, but she had brought dark chocolate from a high end chocolatier, and even he had to admit that it was good. She was so stupidly happy and excited over him liking the chocolate that she had brought for him that it was almost embarrassing to him. 

"See, I told you sweets could be good," Ann stated, so proud of herself for finding something that he liked that he swore he didn't before.   
"Whatever, so you found one sweet that I like. It's just chocolate, and bitter chocolate at that. That doesn't mean that I like sweets as a whole, it just means that I happen to like a specific type of chocolate," Goro argued, and she frowned slightly.   
"Fine, I'll keep bringing you sweets then, and I'll make you like all of them," She said, taking up the challenge that he had put forth.   
"Why, exactly, do you feel the need to do this? I'm certain there are better things that you could be doing with your time. You seem to really enjoy spending money on useless trinkets and clothing, why not do that?" He suggested sarcastically. Ann just pouted and folded her arms.   
"Don't tempt me to start buying useless things for you just to annoy you," She replied.    
"What is wrong with you?" Goro questioned.   
"I could ask you the same question," Ann retorted.    
"You're the one pestering me day in and day out for no apparent reason," He responded.    
"At least you're not lonely anymore though, right?" What a strange girl, Goro thought. Why did she even care if he was lonely or not? It's not like he had done anything to earn any sort of kindness from her.   
"I never asked to not be lonely," He replied.    
"It's a nice change though, isn't it? Changes can be good, you know. You can change too, if you want to." What was she even going on about?    
"I don't want to," Goro stated, mildly irritated.   
"Okay."

Ann kept bringing Goro sweets, and by some miracle he wound up at least not hating most of them. A few of them he said he didn't like, and he never said that he really loved any of them, but he did state that they weren't terrible, which was basically like saying they're good in Goro speak, so that was good enough for her.

At some point they moved from bumping into each other accidentally to meeting each other on purpose, and then at some point they began planning their meetings ahead of time just to make sure the other would be there, and then...

Was Goro dating Ann? He wasn't sure. She kept asking him to go places with her and he kept not turning her down. A walk around the park where all of the plum blossoms were in bloom due to it being January, and somehow he found himself admiring her instead of the trees like he was meant to. She really was pretty, even he could admit that. It made sense, she was a model after all, it was literally her job to be pretty. He shouldn't have been surprised by that.

The underground mall was nothing to be that excited about. It was usually crowded, and nothing in it ever really interested Goro, but for some reason Ann enjoyed shopping there. She dragged him along, and he wound up doing something stupid. Of course, being a girl she had to wander into the jewelry shop, and of course she tugged him along by the hand inside.

Pushy, Ann was always so goddamn pushy, but Goro knew that if she weren't, he would still be standing in Kichijoji, desiring changes that he wouldn't live to see. He watched her as she looked around the shop until a ring with a rose on it caught her eye. It was adorned with rubies and garnets, and was small enough that it would look good on her slender finger. All she did was admire it without expecting anything at all, but Goro grabbed the sales associate and decided to just buy it for her without really thinking. 

Ann was shocked when he asked to buy it, and even more shocked when she saw the price on the screen at the register. He didn't flinch, didn't care, he just paid for it and that was that. He had money, plenty of it in fact, and he wasn't going to be able to do anything else with it. It'd all just go to waste if he didn't spend it before he...

Goro shook his head. Best not to think about it for now. It was only the middle of the month. He had time. "You didn't need to buy that for me," Ann told him as they walked away from the shop together. He pulled the ring out of the box and handed it to her.   
"Aren't you going to wear it?" He asked, ignoring her statement about not needing to buy it.   
"Of course, but you still didn't need to buy it," She replied as she removed her glove and slipped the ring onto her ring finger. It fit her perfectly, which was lucky considering she hadn't even had a chance to try it on before Goro paid for it.   
"I don't need to be here in this shitty mall with you either, yet here I am," He stated. He was trying to sound irritated, but he actually wasn't.   
"Why are you here?" She asked.   
"Because you're a pushy pain in the ass who won't leave me the fuck alone," He replied.   
"Right, so you choose to spend more time with me instead of avoiding me. That makes perfect sense," She said sarcastically.   
"Whatever. You're going to wear that ring forever, right?" His heart skipped a beat then. Why was he asking her that? That was such a...such a... He didn't even want to think of the word, let alone say it. He was not her...   
"Yes, forever," Ann replied simply, and Goro's heart skipped another beat. They walked in silence for a few moments, then she spoke again. "The world won't end if you say you care about me, you know."   
"That isn't true. The world as I know it would end, and a new one would take its place...one that I was never meant to see." None of this was meant to happen, he wasn't meant to have this extra month of time. His world was meant to stay exactly the same, completely empty and devoid of life, of love, for the rest of eternity.    
"It's okay to change, to grow and become someone better than who you used to be. I used to be so afraid of everything all the time, afraid to use my voice and speak up, but now I want the world to see my heart."   
"I'm not afraid. I just..." Would he break her heart if he admitted that he cared for her and then left? He wasn't sure, he wasn't sure if he was that important to her. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be that important to her. All he ever wanted was to be loved, but what good would it do him now?   
"It's okay. Maybe you can tell me some other day." Could she love him?

It was usually evening when they met up, so Goro decided to take Ann to Jazz Jin one day. He wasn't sure why he did that, it was his special place and yet he was sharing it with Ann Takamaki of all people? It really was a strange month, everything and everyone had stopped growing and things had become so stagnant, and yet...

Little by little, and bit by bit, Goro's icy cold heart thawed under the warmth of Ann's inner flame, and when the melted ice turned to water, the river of change could flow once more. 

They spent more and more time together, then one evening Ann told Goro that she wanted to go on the ferris wheel with him, so that was what they did. They sat side by side, staring out at the world as they rotated around like the hand of a clock. 

It was getting close now, the end of everything for Goro, and he actually felt sad. Not at the idea of dying, he didn't care about that, he was sad because he wouldn't be able to see Ann anymore. That was ridiculous though, wasn't it? He didn't feel things like that, he wasn't attached to her at all... She was nothing but an annoying thorn in his side, one that he couldn't get rid of, one that he...didn't want to get rid of.

Oh god he was attached to her. With her stupid sweets and her dumb hairstyle and her ugly jackets...and her pretty doll-like face, and her beautiful eyes...they were so blue, as blue as the ocean, and he wished he could just get lost in them and drift away somewhere within her so that he'd never have to leave her.

Oh god Goro wasn't just attached to Ann. He was  _ in love  _ with her. For fucks sake, how did he fall in love with Ann Takamaki of all people? She drove him absolutely nuts, she was always so pushy and...no, that wasn't right, he thought, she wasn't pushy at all. She was loving and kind and actually seemed like she cared about him. How did that happen, he wondered. 

She was sitting painfully close to him. So close that he could smell her sickeningly sweet vanilla perfume, and yet...he liked it. How exactly had she succeeded in making him like sweets? It baffled him, to say the least. Her hands were placed on her knees, and her feet moved up and down nervously next to his. "So how is it, not being alone?" Ann asked Goro, and he gave her a very small smile.   
"It's less lonely," He replied.    
"Did you let me in?" She asked.   
"Yes," He responded honestly.   
"Is your heart a little less empty because of it?"    
"Yes. Ann, I-" Goro's sentence was interrupted by Ann's lips pressing against his. Her kiss tasted like cupcakes, sweet vanilla cupcakes, and for the first time he wanted more of something that was far too sweet for his liking. 

He moved his lips against hers, soft and gentle, in a way that she wasn't expecting. She never knew what to expect with him, he was always so cold, but now...he felt so warm. His skin and his lips and his breath were all so wonderfully warm. Ann wrapped her arms around him and tugged herself toward him. His body was warm too, and she felt that warmth encircle her as he returned her embrace. 

Eventually the ferris wheel stopped, and they had to get off. It was late, so they parted ways for the evening. Goro never finished his sentence, but that was okay. He still had another chance to tell Ann, another chance to be with her before it all ended.

How had the month passed by so quickly, and yet so slowly all at the same time? What had become pleasure to Goro was coming to an end, to be replaced by business. Only this time, he didn't want it to be business. He wanted it to be pleasure, the pleasure that he had been missing for so long. 

Ann arrived, just as she had arrived so many times before, and Goro decided that he wanted to spend his last night with her, though he wasn't sure how to go about that. With little time and little desire to be delicate, he decided to just flat out say what he wanted and hope for the best. He had nothing to lose after all. "Would you like to come with me to my apartment?" He asked her, and she seemed surprised at first, but then she smiled.   
"Okay," She replied.

Goro had never let anyone in before, but he had decided to let Ann in. She wanted to come in, after all, and she was the first to have wanted that in this particular way. He would have waited longer normally, drawn things out, been more evasive and distant, but time was not something he had to waste. All he had was a month, and though he had intended on being alone for it, she had decided that he shouldn't be, and who was he to argue with the beautiful Ann Takamaki?

The walls were bare, the shelves were empty aside from a few books, and the apartment didn't even look lived in, but somehow Ann hadn't expected anything different. She wandered around without even asking permission to enter the various rooms, but Goro didn't really mind. He was used to her pushing her way inside by now. 

It didn't take long for Ann to find Goro's bedroom. It wasn't an exceedingly large apartment, after all. She made her way inside and sat down on the bed. "Comfy. I kind of expected it to be firm, but it's actually really soft," She remarked, and it felt like she was talking about more than just the bed then. "Aren't you going to join me?" He had been standing in the doorway, just watching as she gently bounced up and down on his bed, feet kicking back and forth, elevated a bit from the ground due to how tall his mattress was.   
"Why me?" Goro asked. "You could have had anyone you wanted. Why did you choose me?"   
"Because you  _ didn't _ choose me," Ann replied, and he was left confused.   
"That doesn't make any sense," He stated.    
"Most guys look at me like a piece of meat to be had and chewed on. It's disgusting. But you don't. You never did," She told him, causing him to wonder why she had agreed to come to his apartment. "Even now, moments away from...well, everything, you're still keeping your distance and looking at my eyes instead of my breasts, and you're not even conscious of the fact that you're doing it. It's just what you automatically do."   
"I don't view women that way. I can't, not after seeing the way that my mother was treated," Goro stated.   
"And yet you invited me to your apartment. Why?" Ann asked.   
"Because I love you and I want to show that to you before I..." What was he doing? He couldn't tell her about that, she'd probably cry...she'd cry? Over him? That couldn't be right, could it?   
"Before you what?" She questioned, and he just shook his head.   
"I tell you that I love you and you choose to focus on that," He commented.    
"I already knew you loved me," She stated.    
"How?" Goro asked, confused.   
"You let me in. You let me fill the empty space in your heart, even if it was only a little bit," Ann replied.   
"It was more than a little bit," He said as he slowly closed the distance between them. He stood before her, and placed his hand beneath her chin to move her face upward. She looked up into his eyes, the ones that used to say that he had been through hell, only now they told a different story. They told the story of a man who had finally found his reason to exist, a day before he was set to fade away. "You filled it with so much sugar that I think I'll die of a heart attack before we even reach the treasure." 

Ann burst out laughing then, and Goro smiled, brighter than he ever had before. Once her laughter calmed, she looked up at him again, and spoke the words that he had been longing to hear his entire life. "I love you." 

They had left their gloves, coats, and shoes by the door, and soon they would remove the rest. Ann's hands moved up to Goro's neck, and she pulled him down toward her, until his lips met hers. It was less gentle this time, more filled with need, with desire. He wasn't cold anymore, he was warm, so warm that he was boiling hot. His hands tugged at her clothes, and their lips parted only for mere seconds so that he could pull her shirt off of her. Then he grasped onto her hair ties, and tugged them out of her hair, allowing the strands to fall across her shoulders.

Ann began to unbutton Goro's shirt, struggling with each button, before she finally just gave up and ripped it apart, without even caring that it was likely a very expensive shirt. He didn't care either, if he was being honest, what good did an expensive shirt do a dead man? It didn't take long for the rest of the clothes to come off, one by one, until they were left in nothing...except for Ann's ring, the one that she had told him that she would wear forever. 

So this was what it felt like to loved. God he felt incredible, every inch of his once cold heart was lit ablaze by her flame. He let his mouth roam her body, trailing kisses and bites all along it, staining her perfect porcelain skin with splashes of crimson. Briefly, he wondered if those marks would last beyond tomorrow, or if they would disappear with him. He wasn't sure which he would prefer. 

All this time, Goro thought that he was frozen, with a heart that was buried under such thick ice that it could not ever feel the warmth of another. He was convinced that he would never experience love, convinced that he didn't deserve it and maybe he didn't, but still, she chose to love him anyway. Just as he had chosen to let her in, she chose to let him in, into her heart, and into her body. 

Ann was never a thorn in his side, she was a beautiful rose that he wanted to treasure for as long as this world would allow him to. She fell asleep in his arms, and all that he could do was lie there with her against his chest, absentmindedly twirling the soft strands of her hair around his fingers. Why did she never wear it down, he wondered. She was far more beautiful in this raw state than she ever was all dolled up as a model.

Eventually sleep took him as well, and though Goro knew what was coming, he still somehow managed to sleep better than he ever had before. The warmth of Ann's body was a comfort he never knew that he needed. Waking up the next morning to her was a pleasant experience, so pleasant that he didn't even want to get out of bed. 

Ann moved her head to look at him, and smiled. "Good morning," She whispered, then she kissed him.    
"Yes, for the first time in a long time, I think it is a good morning," Goro replied with a serene smile on his face. Was this what it felt like to be truly happy? He didn't know for certain. He hadn't been happy in so long. She brought her hand up to his head then, and ran her fingers through his hair.   
"Is it because you love me?" Ann asked.   
"It's because  _ you _ love  _ me _ ," He replied, as honest as ever.    
"See, I told you, isn't it better not being alone?" She asked.   
"Yes. Thank you. For everything," Goro responded. He wanted her to know that he was grateful for all that she had done for him. That he was grateful that she had chosen to love him, despite everything. His last days were not spent alone, all because of her, and he was able to experience so many things that he thought he never would. In the end, she had been right, it was good to change, to grow into a better person, a warmer one. To let someone in, someone special, someone who had no desire to hurt him. 

All things must come to an end. Ann got up eventually, and he watched her as she put her clothes on. After that her hands reached up and she started pulling her hair back into her usual twin ponytails. "You should wear your hair down," Goro told her.    
"Maybe, but not today. Everyone will start asking me questions about it if I do," She responded, not realizing that this was the last day he would ever see her. He didn't say anything further about it, and just let her do what she wanted.

They left his apartment shortly after that, and met up with the group. Everything happened as it was meant to. The month was over, and so was Goro's life. The treasure was stolen, the escape was made, and he witnessed Ann cry over the loss of him. He held her in his arms one last time, and slowly faded away along with what was left of Mementos.

Things went back to the way that they were, and once again Ann craved change. She didn't want the stagnant life that she had before, she wanted to have her Goro back. She had grown to love him, really love him, and she had wanted them to continue to grow together, but instead he was just gradually erased. She found her way to his apartment, a place that no one else had been in, and let herself in with the spare key he had shown to her. 

It was empty, as empty as it was before. A few books and that was it. She searched the rooms, but no one was there. The bed was still soft, only this time she expected it to be. Its owner was soft on the inside too, once all of the ice had melted away. She took her hair down then, and she lied down on top of the bed. Then she cried. 

She cried over being alone on his bed. She cried over the fact that she hadn't just left her hair down before like he suggested, so that he could have seen her that way in his final moments. She cried over the fact that the marks that he had left on her skin were slowly disappearing just like he had and that she'd never have new ones from him. She cried, and she cried, and she cried.

It was all that she could do. There was nothing that could make it better anymore. The blistering heat of her heart was simply too painful for her to bear without the cold to soothe it. 


End file.
